by Kelly MACNAMARA Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Climate change is on track to ramp up the annual cost of US flood damage more than 25 percent by 2050, according to new research Monday that warns disadvantaged communities will likely bear the brunt of the financial burden. The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change used new flood models to map out the present and future impact of sea level rise, tropical cyclones and […]
Tag: urban planning
Paris looks to recapture lost beauty after criticism
PARIS, France (AFP) – Paris city authorities unveiled a “manifesto for beauty” on Tuesday containing plans to spruce up the City of Lights where an online campaign highlighting ugliness and filth has piled pressure on mayor Anne Hidalgo. Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said that several recent initiatives from the Socialist-Green alliance that runs the capital would be scrapped, including allowing Parisians to plant their own gardens on public space. Under a 2015 scheme, locals were […]
Albanian bunkers ravaged by rising tides as erosion takes toll
by Briseida MEMA Agence France-Presse SEMAN, Albania (AFP) – Albania’s communist-era bunkers were meant to withstand a nuclear strike, but decades later the fortifications are being devoured by the sea as the country’s coastline is battered by erosion. The shores of the Balkan country are among the most affected in Europe by erosion, according to experts, who blame climate change and uncontrolled urbanisation for the scourge. Along the shores of Seman in central Albania, many […]
Toronto seeks to save oak tree older than Canada
by Olivier MONNIER Agence France-Presse TORONTO, Canada (AFP) — In the shadow of Canada’s largest cluster of skyscrapers, Toronto is looking to preserve a majestic, centuries-old oak tree — but efforts have been complicated by the pandemic. The towering 24-meter (79-feet) high Northern Red Oak is one of the oldest trees in these parts, having sprouted an estimated 300 years ago, around the time that French explorers set up a trading post on the nearby […]
Capital flight: Indonesian move could prompt new environment crisis
by Natalia SANTI JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Abandoning Jakarta for a new capital in Borneo won’t save the fast-sinking Indonesian megacity from disaster and could even spark a fresh environmental crisis in a region home to rainforests and endangered orangutans, critics have warned. President Joko Widodo announced this week that the Southeast Asian nation’s political heart would be moved nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) east to a yet-to-be-built model city as a way of easing […]
Indonesia picks Borneo island for new capital
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia will move its capital to the eastern edge of jungle-clad Borneo island, President Joko Widodo said Monday, as the country shifts its political heart away from congested and sinking megalopolis Jakarta. The proposed location — near the regional cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda — is an area at “minimal” risk of natural disasters, where the government already owns some 180,000 hectares (445,000 acres) of land, he added. “The location is […]
Palafox to talk about the impact of urban planning to the Filipino workforce in Open for Business
Architect and Urban Planner Felino “Jun” Palafox, Jr. will be sharing his insights on how the Filipino workforce is affected by urban planning, or the lack of it, in the August 25 webisode of Open for Business. Open for Business is the online business show of Eagle Brodcasting Corporation (EBC) that focuses on business, financial and economic news and headlines in the Philippines and in key markets around the world. It also highlights the insights of […]





